Hidden in Lion's clothing
by full-of-wrackspurts
Summary: Daphne's view of Harry and his real thoughts about Hogwarts. NOT AN UPDATE JUST AN EDIT
1. Chapter 1

A/N I do not own Harry Potter, he belongs to JK Rowling and Warner Bros 

Hidden in Lion's clothing

Daphne Greengrass

Tall

Brunette

Attractive

But ignored by men in favour of another adjective: Slytherin.

Everyone knows that Slytherins are cunning and ambitious but no-one seems to realise that it is not a fault. That's the most annoying thing.

Yes she wants to be successful and yes she sometimes uses methods that others wouldn't, but that doesn't make her evil. It just makes her different.

She can't understand Gryffindors who put all their faith into believing all Slytherins are the spawn of Satan, when they are probably more evil than any Slytherin. Slytherins have reasons behind their insults whether it's to please their abusive fathers, prevent them being killed by the Dark Lord or to show others their attraction. Gryffindors purely use them to hurt. They can't see the reasons, can't understand the hurt hidden behind the sarcasm and taunts or the desire to have the simpler life Gryffindors seem to have.

All Gryffindors except one.

Harry Potter

The Golden Boy

The Boy Who Lived

The Chosen One

The pampered price as Professor Snape likes to call him.

And she can't understand it.

In those verbal sparring matches with Draco Malfoy, she sees amusement and sympathy in his eyes, not the outright hate in others. It could be explained by an attraction but that's not what it seems like.

It's sympathy, not empathy. He understands the pain and it makes her wonder

How can he understand? Is he really the Gryffindor Golden Boy?

If her instincts are right he's hiding something, something that has taught him to recognise the facades that Slytherins put up to protect themselves. Is it cunning that stops him from saying anything to break the façade or is he protecting himself like any good slytherin would?

In reality is he like them, like her, but hiding in lion's clothing?

**A/N** Thank you **Red Cat** for the review. I checked and it seems it should be sympathy not empathy according to freedictionarydotcom but it confuses me as well. Also thank you for my first fanfiction review.

Sorry for the language mix up, **AngelDustt,** it now says english which is what it's meant to be.

To answer **SimFlyer's** question, at the moment this is just a oneshot but it is possible that I will write Harry's perspective at some point.

Also thank you to the people who have put this story on alert or have favourited it, it is appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Sorry people, but this is just an edit not a new chapter and I will not be continuing the story so if anyone wants to make it their own just let me know. Thank you for all the reviews. favourites and alerts and my story is in two communities so thank you, it's very appreciated.

The Lion

He is Harry Potter, The Chosen One, The Boy Who lived and all that rubbish. The title just goes to show how stupid the Wizarding world is. They place a one year old child on a pedestal making him into an impossible mythical figure then expect the same child to reappear at 11 years old as a conquering hero. Like he said, the Wizarding world is stupid.

He can forgive them for it since his supposed defeat of Voldemort put an end to a decade of suffering but to continue the hype when he was just a child and fairytales? Really? The stories encourage a whole society to worship him. Girls want to marry him and boys want to be him. Also, the tales always paint him as mentally stable. Anyone who has talked to him for longer than 10 minutes knows that's not true.

The tales just put an unfair pressure on him to act a certain way, to be the perfect pupil, the perfect friend, the perfect boyfriend, the perfect little hero, all so he can match up to society's expectations for him. This hero worship also means he's so ingrained into that one comment from one newspaper saying something negative will be amplified by a thousand.

He will never forgive Dumbledore for leaving him on the Dursley's doorsteps but he is grateful that he kept him from the madness. Admittedly Privet Drive was not the best place to grow up and he would never go back if he had a choice or ever call the Dursley's his family but he appreciates that thanks to Dumbledore he had eleven years free of fame and constant stares.

But Dumbledore's actions have glaring consequences, consequences that Dumbledore has a tendency to ignore. Dumbledore is the beacon of hope for the wizarding world so it's no wonder it's all going to hell. He is known as the best headmaster Hogwarts has ever had but his decades of experience work against him as he is too used to the status quo to make any changes, the vicious rivalries amongst the houses being a case in point. Society has changed since the founding of Hogwarts but the divisive and stupid system still exists, separating the school into houses and then forcing them to compete with each other just promotes enmity not togetherness as Dumbledork is so proud of preaching.

The children come into school already having preconceptions about the houses, Slytherin is the evil house, Gryffindor the brave and brash house, Hufflepuffs are friendly idiots and Ravenclaw the brainy and socially incompetent ones. The hat brands you as soon as you enter the hall and dictates how you will be treated.

Gryffindors are so full of themselves because they are treated as the superior house when it's not true. People are still stuck in the past and think that because the great and almighty Albus-too-many-names Dumbledore was a Gryffindor everyone in that house deserves the same treatment. The teachers definitely belief it so it's no surprise that the House points are an absolute joke.

Who gets the best marks, (if you don't count Hermione) the Ravenclaws or Slytherins. Who earns the most points? The Hufflepuffs for being helpful. Gryffindors only win the House Cup because of Quidditch which when you think about it, relies on someone being stupid enough to hang around in the air avoiding things being thrown at him in order to catch a tiny ball. So the winners of the House Cup are determined by the level of recklessness the house shows and on the teachers' unwillingness to award any points to Slytherin.

In some ways Snape is probably the fairest when giving out points. Never punishing the Slytherins gives them a fairer chance than if he rewarded the points to any other house and no-one else will give the "evil" house points.

He feels sorry for the Slytherins. Because of people passing down centuries old stories about Slytherin being "evil" (a term that people define differently anyway ) and one Dark Lord happening to be a Slytherin, anyone in Slytherin is treated with suspicion and is forced to be vindictive in order to be noticed. Whenever Malfoy starts a fight with him he just feels sorry for him, recognising that he is putting on an act in order to receive a semblance of praise from his father. He admires his tenacity and has to admit he does come up with some good insults but when you know the reasons behind it it is hard to take them seriously. He has also noticed the Slytherins on the edges, listening to the fights but never participating just being aware of the situation as a true Slytherin should be.

The Hat wanted to put him in Slytherin and now he can see why, he's a good actor. He pretends to be the Chosen One. He must maintain a perfect image otherwise any slip up or mistake he makes will be displayed to the whole world. That's why he retaliates to Draco's insults or hexes even though in his head he's screaming "I know Draco, I know but acting just like they want you to won't work, they'll just find something else to criticise". He has enough experience since it was the Dursleys' favourite lesson. But talking to Draco or any Slytherin is not an option as the "Chosen One can't be seen to be consorting with Slytherins." The constant act he has to portray is a hard one to maintain so occasionally he slips but after a slightly dark comment or a nice comment about Snape or Malfoy there's always someone to remind them of who he is and that the show must go on.

Yet there are times when he just wants to shout at the entire Wizarding World, "this isn't me this is what you made me." He hopes that one day someone will realise just how much it hurts to be an actor and tell him to leave the stage. It wouldn't surprise him if it was a Slytherin, they're the ones who live the role of a villain.

A/N

Monkeysrockdude, I know what you mean about the changing tenses. I've tried to keep it in present tense because I feel it fits better with the story, sorry if you don't like it. It's still a bit ropy but hopefully it has improved.

Thank you flame55, mcgurrin and coastal firebird for the encouragement, it's nice to know that you enjoyed it.


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